Origins
by Maethorneth
Summary: An island-wide attack with no one to stop it leaves six Matoran on the journey to finding their true destinies. Rated T for violence
1. Chapter 1: Ice

Author's Note: There are several changes between the official canon of BIONICLE and my universe which is called 'The Maethorneth Alternate Universe'. The wiki for this universe can be found at .com Enjoy the story!

~Maethorneth

Torbur Nui was practically an island paradise. Rarely were the Matoran who made the island their abode disturbed or threatened in any way. Most of them went peacefully about their daily tasks of farming, sculpting, studying and other such chores as were deemed fit by the Matoran. No Turaga resided on Torbur Nui and the Matoran chose leaders of the village as they saw fit. Methods of choosing varied from village to village but this method of leadership never seemed to cause problems. Neither were there any Toa, so defense of the villages was operated by the Matoran themselves. Rarely was such a defense needed however, as threats were virtually non-existent. It was on this island in the northernmost village, Ko-Koro as it was named by the island's denizens, there happened to be a disturbance. It was not among the usual landslides or blizzards the Ko-Matoran expected on a daily basis, it was rather a direct attack on the village.

The sky was filled with rolling clouds, appearing as puffs of smoke. It would have been a beautiful sight had the clouds not been obscuring the sun's golden rays. As a result, the sky was dark and looked as if, at any moment, a torrential downpour might burst forth from the clouds. The Ko-Matoran were used to blizzards and the like so a storm as the clouds seemed ready to produce was nothing to concern themselves over, or so they thought.

A young Matoran named Tior was standing at the village gates on guard duty. He had only recently joined the Village Guard and was standing at his post with his superior officer, Maethor. Maethor had aspired for some time to become Captain of the Guard, however the Captain was always chosen by the leader of the village, and every Matoran considered Maethor to be a poor choice for Captain. He still held on to a shred of hope that he might someday be able to lead the Village Guard but it was little more than a hope.

It was on this bleak day that the first real disturbance on Torbur Nui occurred. It was almost unnoticeable but Tior saw what appeared to be a black cloud, moving along the ground at very high speed. Tior panicked; _Of course, first big thing to EVER happen on this island happens on my first day of guard duty. _

"Maethor," Tior began, "do you see that?"

Maethor strained his eyes until he too could see the coming cloud.

"Sound the alarm!" he shouted and both he and Tior ran back inside the gate, not before Maethor retrieved his bow and arrows though. Tior was one of the fastest Matoran in the village and he sprinted straight for the warning bell. Maethor dashed up the steps of the village wall and fitted an arrow to his bow-string, ready for whatever might come. Tior continued to ring the warning bell for several minutes as the cloud came ever closer. After the first few rings of the bell, Aloro, the current Captain of the Guard emerged from his hut, with his blade in his hand, prepared to fend off an attack. Maethor tried his best to keep his animosity toward Aloro under control. Aloro was best in the village at nearly everything and Maethor hated him for it.

The cloud came ever closer with each second and Aloro trotted up the steps to the top of the wall. At the top of the village gate, there was a telescope, which the Ko-Matoran used to perceive any potential threats or friends from a great distance. It hadn't been used in over a thousand years however. Aloro looked through the rusty piece of equipment, barely able to see anything through the eyepiece. What he did see, though, was appalling. Swarms of spherical creatures were rolling toward the village at what appeared to be top speed, all of them a sickly shade of green.

Aloro dropped down from the wall and stood in the middle of the gate, ready to challenge this foe. Fearless he seemed but he was able to mask his emotions exceptionally well. The swarms came closer and Maethor pulled back the arrow on his bowstring. Tior continued to sound the alarm bell as the rest of the Matoran were pouring into the underground roadway built by the Onu-Matoran. It was not created for mass exodus though and the going was slow. Portions of the tunnel were caved in and had to be cleared away again. Many of the Matoran knew that their time was coming. A group of Ko-Koronan archers marched up the stairs to the wall, fitted arrows onto their bowstrings and prepared to fire. While Maethor hadn't yet achieved the rank of Captain of the Guard, he at least had achieved the rank of Captain of the Archers.

"Ready arrows!" Maethor shouted to his archers. They all drew back their arrows and aimed for the incoming swarms.

"Fire!" Maethor roared. A volley of arrows sailed from the top of the battlements and stuck into some of the creatures, freezing them in place however some arrows missed their marks and there were far more creatures than there were archers. The unfrozen creatures continued moving and plowed through the village wall as if it had been air. The foundations of the wall were destroyed and the entire defense crumbled into dust, crushing some of the archers. Most of the survivors sprinted for the underground highway but some escaped the rubble and readied another volley of arrows. Maethor was the last to emerge and the first to actually pay attention to what the swarm was doing inside of the village. The spheres had unfolded and appeared as round, insect-like creatures, blasting an acidic substance from a claw-like shield on the end of their arms. The acid ate through everything it touched. Maethor saw three of the creatures moving toward the fleeing Matoran and knew that he had to do something.

Without any forethought, Maethor leapt into action. Readying an arrow midair, he fired into the first creature he saw which froze it in place. Landing, he scooped up a handful of rocks and hurled them at the next creature which turned the attention of the two creatures onto himself. He ran for a section of the wall that appeared ready to collapse at any moment. The two creatures turned into spheres and chased after him. Maethor fitted another arrow into his bow and dived through a gap in the wall, firing the arrow into the rock which caused it to collapse, crushing the creatures beneath it.

Maethor had barely stood up and watched the dust clear when he heard screams of pain. He turned to see that Aloro had been pinned down and one of the creatures was pouring acid onto him; Aloro's right hand and left foot had already been melted off and the acid was still eating through him. Maethor fitted his last arrow into his bow and fired at one of the creatures. The arrow hit its mark perfectly and froze the creature in place. This caught the attention of some others and three of them curled up and began rolling toward him.

Maethor had to lead the creatures away from the escaping Matoran and the only way he knew to escape was down the side of the mountain that the village had rested on. He made a dash away from the path toward the nearly sheer side of the mountain but he lost his footing and slipped, sliding down the mountain at high speed. The creatures tumbled after him but they soon lost track of him as what little light there had been was beginning to fade and the Ko-Matoran's color was blending into the snow drifts well.

Maethor had slid far away from the creatures. The last ten feet of the mountain was a sheer ice wall. Before Maethor slid off the side and hit the solid ground, he noticed a small glowing object but when he landed, his consciousness was lost.


	2. Chapter 2: Iron

Chapter 2: Iron

Bleak weather was seen everywhere on Torbur Nui that day. In Fe-Koro, The House was in session. Unlike Ko-Koro's system of leadership, in which the oldest Matoran was leader, Fe-Koro had a system of elections. Fe-Koro could hardly be called a village; it was so large that the rest of the residents of Torbur Nui referred to it as a city.

The House was an elected group of representatives from each of the three sections of Fe-Koro with a Leader selected from the numbers of The House. The three sections were Mining, Crafting, and Shipping; each of the three sections having two representatives. Colan was one of the representatives of the Shipping Section. The majority of this House session had been spent deciding whether the tax rate would increase from 70 widgets per month to 100 widgets per month or stay the same.

For the most part, the only section who really wanted the taxing to increase was the Mining section. The Mining section received all their equipment from taxes and more tax money meant more and better equipment. Even though the four representatives from the Crafting and Shipping sections could have easily carried the vote on previous sessions, this session was different because they had recently decided to give the Leader and the representative from his section the power of two votes each. The leader had also been elected from the Mining district in this session; meaning that the representatives of the Mining section had four votes to oppose the votes of the other four representatives.

Colan was trying to convince the representatives of the Mining section that a higher tax rate would adversely affect all of Torbur Nui. The Leader, Krila, refused every word from Colan's mouth. Despite his generally stubborn nature, Colan was ready to give up, as was almost everyone else. A move to adjourn until the next morning, even though noon had not yet been reached, was seconded by all.

Colan left the building where The House met feeling, somewhat refreshed by the hot air outside. The heat didn't bother him much as he had dwelt in it for as long as he could remember. He started on his journey back to his home in the Shipping section. It would only take an hour by Ussal carriage and the carriage ride would cost him 15 widgets. He reluctantly handed the money to the driver and proceeded to lie down to sleep in the back of the carriage.

He had only been asleep for a few seconds when screams surrounded the carriage on all sides, awakening him. Colan sat up in a panic, wondering what was going on. The driver showed only his head as he reached into a secret compartment inside the carriage and produced a rusty sword from it.

"Stay here," the driver said. Colan rolled his eyes, knowing he couldn't just sit there helplessly. As soon as the driver left, Colan poked his head out and looked around to see what was happening. Several large figures were stomping around carrying staves almost as big as they were, and firing bolts of energy from said staves which destroyed anything they touched. Houses were reduced to piles of rubble in seconds; Matoran were being disintegrated, there one second and gone the next. Colan was at a loss for what to do, there was no way he could hold his own against these creatures but he knew he didn't want to go down without a fight. He opened the compartment the driver had previously produced a sword from and saw a rusty and decaying axe. _Better than nothing, _he thought to himself.

Grabbing it, he leaped from the carriage and rushed for the first of the creatures he saw, hacking it in the leg with as much strength as he could muster. There was hardly a scratch on the creature. It hissed at Colan and kicked him off to the side of the street. Colan was knocked unconscious from the force of the kick but the creature was preparing to fire its staff to finish the Matoran off. The purple energy surged and crackled at the tip of the creature's staff and it would have hit Colan had the driver not jumped in the way and taken the blast in his own chest.

The impact from the explosion sent Colan sliding across the ground and back toward the carriage. The sliding brought him out of unconsciousness but he was still not fully aware of what was going on. As if out of thin air, three high ranking officers of the Shipping section appeared with swords, swordplay being a hobby of theirs. They knew that in the laws of Fe-Koro, protecting the Representatives in the event of any form of threat was of utmost importance. Despite their desires to flee, the officers held their ground, forming a semicircle around Colan, the circle completed by the rear end of the carriage.

The creature, deprived of its desired kill, turned its rage toward the officers. Once again he charged the end of his staff, the purple energy surged greater this time. The ground seemed to burst into tiny explosions under his feet as he stomped, showing the magnitude of his power; the Matoran could see the power seething through this creature. With an almost blinding flash of light, the burst of energy was fired. It hit one of the officers square in the chest, reducing him to no more than a pile of ash and rubble. The other two officers screamed in horror and soon, they too were disintegrated.

After the three officers were killed, Colan seemed to finally regain his senses. Springing to his feet, he ran to the front of the carriage and climbed inside, searching for anything that might help him to stop the creatures. _This driver sure carries a lot of junk, _he thought as he rummaged. He could hear the footsteps of the creature getting louder with each step. Soon he could hear the crackling of energy from the creature's staff. _He's going to destroy the carriage! _Colan thought and continued to search through all the flotsam and jetsam in the back of the carriage. In the heat of the moment, he saw a small object glowing orange. It mesmerized him and it seemed as though time was slowed for a few moments.

Colan moved a few bits of scrap from the top of it when the object was revealed to be a stone, not more than six inches in length. It had a small insignia imprinted on the surface; the symbol of Fe-Koro.

"What in the-?" But Colan didn't have time to finish his thought as a screeching hiss from the creature outside the carriage brought him out of his trance. He saw a small knife and grabbed it, leaping once again from the carriage only moments before the creature loosed the energy in his staff, sending the carriage into a heap of smoke and flame.

Colan ran as fast as his legs could carry him, where he was going he did not know, but it was the first time he had felt compelled to leave a particularly bad situation. He ran away from Fe-Koro for hours before he finally became exhausted and fell, slipping into unconsciousness, very close to the time Maethor had fallen into his own unconsciousness.


	3. Chapter 3: Psionics

On that fateful day of bleak weather across Torbur Nui, if one had traveled to Ce-Koro, one might have seen many Ce-Matoran gathered together for meditation time. A Ce-Matoran had few duties as each was responsible for ensuring that they had enough to eat and a place to sleep so the village was highly unorganized and would have looked very strange to anyone who was not a member of it. After they had finished whatever jobs they needed to complete in a day, they were free to spend their time as they chose. Most chose to meditate as a group in the approximate center of the village.

Meditation to them was a form of relaxation. It helped to keep one's self calm and to expand the mind to new ideas and forms of information. Annu was much like the others in that she spent much of her free time in meditation, believing that, eventually, she would be able to transcend the physical world. She was the only Matoran with such a goal and the others thought her odd for it; however they accepted her simply because theirs was a culture of acceptance.

She sat meditating on the difference between the spirit and the physical body. Her meditation took her to many different corners of _Dreamland,_ as the Ce-Matoran referred to it. Dreamland was different for each Matoran but it was a world wherein all of one's thoughts, memories and dreams resided. As far as the Ce-Matoran were concerned, it was not possible to forget anything; thoughts were physical objects that resided in Dreamland, and Dreamland was a physical place that anyone could visit.

Annu's own Dreamland was filled with her multiple ideas of transcending reality and overcoming the need for physical existence. As much as she had meditated on these things for her entire life, she felt no closer to accomplishing her goal. Most of her life she had felt that her duty in life was to discover this and somehow pass the methods on to others. She had not, however, accomplished this goal and over the days prior to this one she had begun to lose hope, thinking she would never fulfill her destiny. Little did she realize that today would be a turning point in her life when her true destiny would be revealed.

During their meditation, the Ce-Matoran were capable of shutting out the outside world and focusing solely on the objects of their meditation. For this reason, the attack was able to begin without anyone noticing.

The attack began when swarms of red, rolling creatures thundered into the village. Some of them stood up and took the form of insect-like creatures. They were slightly perplexed when they met no opposition but it did not hinder them for long. They proceeded to shoot flames from a disk-type weapon on the end of their arms, burning down everything in sight made of wood and melting everything made of metal. Even some Matoran were melted before one of them stopped meditating and started to panic. With little success she began to rouse the others from their meditating and those began to wake others. When Annu was awakened, she realized what was going on.

"We have to evacuate!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Everyone get out of the village!"

A few Matoran heeded her advice and bolted away from the village. Since the Ce-Matoran had no specific type of trade, they had no tools or weapons to defend the village and their only option was to run. Some Matoran who did not leave the village but instead ran frantically in circles while screaming were melted instantly upon contact with the flames of the creatures.

Annu started to cry, her friends were dying all around her and there was nothing she could do. She continued to yell and scream and Matoran started to heed her words and flee the village however many still remained. She started to search through her mind, trying to find a solution to the problem when she saw a piece of wood that had been largely untouched by the flames. She dashed for it and, picking it up, turned to bash it against the first of the insect-like creatures she saw.

She couldn't believe that this was actually working, she was fighting! She charged toward the next one and rammed the beam into it with as much strength as she could muster. She could feel the old, rough wood splintering into her hands; it caused her much pain but the pain of letting her friends die was much worse than any physical pain.

She continued to run through the village, applying the beam liberally to any of the creatures she saw. Finally her strength was giving out; she dropped the beam and sat down, exhausted, next to one of the melted metal houses. She laid her head back to fall asleep and eventually be killed by the creatures but a flash in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned to look at it; a small glowing stone in the flaming remains of a house. She stood and walked over toward it as if in a trance. She stooped down to pick it up, noticing that it was cool despite the fire all around it. It bore an insignia on it: the symbol of Ce-Koro.

She looked about her.

_My village, _she thought. _It's…It's gone…There's nothing left for me here._ She turned away from the ruins of the house and broke into a sprint. She did not know why but she had just felt compelled to do so. If she had known, she was running in the direction of the Great Temple Torbur, much as Colan was; this, however, was unrealized by her at the time.


	4. Chapter 4: Water

The weather in Ga-Koro started off very well that morning; the sun had just risen and shone brightly over the entirety of the village. Lira usually awakened as soon as the sun could be fully seen. She sat up in her bed, stretched her limbs and left her hut to go on her morning swim. She always swam in the morning to stay in shape and the cold, refreshing water of the sea helped to keep her awake.

As she swam her daily route around the perimeter of the village and back to the dock closest to her hut, the weather started to take a turn for the worse. Foul weather often meant the need for many repairs to boats and huts in Ga-Koro since the village was floating on the sea.

As she came around to the point where she had started from, she noticed a movement and a ripple in the water. She was the only person in the village who took an hour to swim in the morning, and she was ridiculed more often than not for this idiosyncrasy. She swam forward to see what was in the water with her. Then she saw another movement followed by another ripple. She swam closer when a scream stopped her short. Soon the entire village was in an uproar but Lira couldn't see what everyone was shouting for. Swimming back to the dock, she climbed out and then she saw the problem.

Blue insect-like creatures, as large as a Matoran, were waddling around the village, blasting high velocity jets of water into buildings, causing them to collapse; some huts even had Matoran inside of them. Lira was awestruck, unsure of how this could happen so suddenly. Ga-Koro had no form of organized protection such as a village guard; the Ga-Matoran did not even practice forms of combat as a hobby like most of the other Koros did.

Lira sprinted to her hut; a fisher by trade, she had a few harpoons that she could use to beat back the enemies. She burst from the door to her hut ready to leap into action but when she emerged she was face to face with one of the creatures, not two feet away from its glowing orange eyes. She couldn't muster the strength to make any kind of move. With lightning speed the creature extended its head, knocking Lira to the ground and separating her mask from her face. Everything became a blur to her and she felt as though she were awake and asleep at the same time. The creature screeched an ear-piercing howl before the top of its head opened revealing what appeared to be a Kanohi but it was made of soft tissue rather than metal. The creature removed the thing from inside its head and placed it on Lira's face before collapsing.

Lira stood with no control over her movements or her mind. She picked up her two harpoons and walked toward the center of the village where the brunt of the attack was focused. Matoran were running in circles, screaming, and trying to grab small objects of sentimental value before they were drowned in their own element. Lira saw a Matoran, someone who she had disagreed with more often than not. Even though Lira had never thought to harm her before, the tissue mask on her face intensified the emotions of dislike to a pure hatred. Without thinking about it, Lira threw one of her harpoons which struck the other Matoran square in the chest. The other Matoran looked up in surprise and gasped before her heartlight flickered and went black and she slumped into the ocean; six feet of bamboo protruding from her chest.

Lira turned and threw her second harpoon; it rammed its stone tip through one side of a Ga-Matoran's neck and out the other. The Matoran had no time to react before her heartlight went black and she slumped to the wooden dock. Lira retrieved her harpoon and continued, looking for any Matoran who might be hiding or running. As she came to the exact center of the village, there were several Matoran and several of the creatures running about. The insect-like creatures were smashing a hole in the village square so as to access the water of the sea.

Lira prepared her next throw of the harpoon but was stopped with blow to the head. She fell on her face before rolling over and looking into another fisher's eyes. The fisher was carrying a large bamboo pole and though she wasn't as skilled in combat as the Ko-Matoran, a large pole such as this was sure to aid in stopping Lira and the insect-like creatures. The other Matoran stood, reveling in her slight victory; Lira took the opportunity to plunge her harpoon into her adversary's stomach. The other Matoran gasped and swung her pole so hard as to knock the strange mask off of Lira's face; then her heartlight died out as she fell with a harpoon in her stomach. Lira felt around for her Kanohi as everything was blurry and one thing was indistinguishable from the next. She finally felt the mask of the Matoran she had just killed and moved it onto her own face. Then she saw the life she had taken and was horrified. She looked about her, tears running down her face, until she noticed the mask-like piece of tissue from the creature. She pulled the harpoon out of the dead Matoran and began to stab the tissue mask repeatedly until it was mutilated beyond recognition.

Lira turned to run, knowing that in these circumstances the village had little chance of survival and even if it did survive, she would never be welcome again. She dove into the water and swam to the bottom, having trained herself to hold her breath for long periods of time; then she started swimming toward the mainland. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a small object and she swam toward it. It was eerily glowing with a tint of blue and it was buried in the sand. She began to dig up the sand around it but the sand was hard and she was almost out of breath. The stone was freed enough that she thought she could dislodge it from the seabed. Her breath supply was getting shorter and shorter. She pulled as hard as she could on the object until it finally broke free from the sand; and as she broke the object loose, she made the mistake of gasping for air, her lungs filling with water instead. She panicked and started swimming toward the surface but she couldn't make it. Still gripping the object tightly she gave herself up, knowing that she would soon be dead.

Not far away, several Ga-Matoran who had managed to escape the destruction of the village in a small fishing boat noticed a limp body floating on the surface of the water.

"Over there!" one of them yelled. The Matoran with the oars started rowing toward the seemingly dead body. When they came along side of it, several Matoran reached over the side and hauled the body up into the boat.

"I think it's Lira," one of the Ga-Matoran said.

"No it can't be," another replied, "this isn't Lira's mask."

"Yeah," a third one added, "Lira was wearing some weird thing and helping those attackers. Let's dump her!"

"No!" the first one said again. "We can't just abandon her; it wasn't of her own free choosing. I saw one of those creatures knock her Kanohi off and replace it with that other thing."

"Fine," the second said, "I'll see what I can do for her."

The second Matoran started pumping on Lira's chest to get the water out of her lungs. When Lira coughed, their spirits lifted and she was flipped onto her back with her head hanging over the side of the boat as she coughed more and more, eventually vomiting. She cursed under her breath and washed her face with the sea water. Then she noticed that her hand was empty and whipped around to face the other Matoran.

"Where is it?" she demanded.

"What?" the other three asked in unison.

"Don't lie to me!" Lira screamed, leaping forward and grabbing one of the Matoran by the throat. The Matoran started gasping for air.

"Where is that thing that was in my hand?" she asked again.

"We don't know what you're talking about, Lira!" the first Matoran said.

Lira screamed as if in agony and pushed the Matoran in her chokehold over the side of the boat before diving back into the water herself. The other Matoran panicked and reached over to help their friend back into the boat before rowing away in the small boat. Lira saw the object she had had before resting on the ocean floor. She swam down and grabbed it before swimming back to the surface. Then seeing a piece of wood which had broken off of the village docks, she grabbed it and used it to float back to the main land where she began walking toward the Great Temple Torbur. She did not know why but she felt compelled to do so; and at the same time Annu was sprinting toward the same temple.

**Author's Note:  
>Yes, I am still doing this story. I have several chapters written so far and now that school is over, I'll have time to do a lot more writing and hopefully I'll get this story finished by New Years to make way for a Gen 2 story. In the meantime, bear with me because I don't have a definite idea of where to take this story and the story I wanted to tell would take several 'books'. As is, this story may leave some open ends but if any of you are interested in the story, input would be very useful to me. I need ideas for things that can happen and also, story input for my G2 story would be welcomed as well because I have literally no ideas for that whereas I have some general ideas for this story. ANYWAY, sorry if that was a long read but, in short, if you have any ideas let me know because I want to hear them. And if a certain character appeals to you, let me know because heshe may be included in the Gen 2 story. Until then, Maethorneth out.**


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